In treating a patient, it is common to prescribe one or more medications. The medications are usually available in capsule or tablet form. The patient is then required to take medications at various intervals during a day. The patient often has many doses of medication to take during the day, and it can sometimes be confusing what medication to take at what time. This confusion is compounded in that medication must often be taken during the course of a week or several weeks. It is sometimes necessary to maintain a correct concentration of a medication in the patient by adding a full or half dose every second or third day. This adds to confusion in dispensing of the medication. It is desirable to provide a means for a health care provider to the patient to be able to quickly determine if the patient has taken all medications for a given day. It may also be desirable to provide a means for a health care provider to predetermine and prearrange the necessary medications for the patient for an extended period of time, such as a week.
Compartmentalized dispensers for dispensing pills or capsules are known in the art. Each dispenser has several compartments which each contain a unit dose of medication. At various intervals during the day, the patient or medical personnel opens one of the compartments and the patient ingests the medication contained in that compartment. The following references disclose compartmentalized dispensers, and are incorporated herein by reference: U.S. Pat. No. 5,267,650 to Gilbilisco; U.S. Pat. No. 5,011,018 to Keffeler; U.S. Pat. No. 4,793,492 to Halbich; U.S. Pat. No. 4,749,085 to Denney; U.S. Pat. No. 4,741,441 to Keffeler; U.S. Pat. No. 4,735,318 to Keffeler; U.S. Pat. No. 4,473,156 to Martin; U.S. Pat. No. 4,403,462 to Halbich; U.S. Pat. No. 4,372,445 to Keffeler; U.S. Pat. No. 4,253,572 to Halbich; U.S. Pat. No. 4,164,309 to Staats; U.S. Pat. No. 4,163,496 to Dogliotti; U.S. Pat. No. 4,084,695 to Halbich; 4,071,065 to Halbich; and U.S. Pat. No. 3,308,962 to Bryant.